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Quantum Probability as a Generalized Logical Structure: From Interference Statistics to Quantum Logic and the Classical Limit

Viktoras Rimsha, Laimontas Rimsha

Published Dec 23, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this paper we propose a unified conceptual framework in which quantum probability, quantum logic, and classical probability theory are understood as different structural levels of a single theoretical hierarchy. Starting from a statistical interpretation of quantum interference, previously developed by the authors, we argue that quantum probability is not an alternative to classical Kolmogorov probability, but a more general structure. Classical probability theory emerges as a limiting case corresponding to the disappearance of interference and the effective decomposition of the whole into independent elements. Within this framework, the Birkhoff–von Neumann quantum logic appears as a natural logical expression of quantum probability rather than as an abstract algebraic construction detached from physical meaning. The priority of the whole over its parts plays a central role in both quantum probability and quantum logic, while classical logic and probability arise when this priority becomes trivial. We emphasize that the proposed interpretation does not reject existing quantum formalism, but reinterprets its logical and probabilistic foundations. This approach may have implications for the conceptual understanding of quantum algorithms and quantum information processing.

DOI
10.5281/zenodo.18037048

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In this paper we propose a unified conceptual framework in which quantum probability, quantum logic, and classical probability theory are understood as different structural levels of a single theoretical hierarchy. Starting from a statistical interpretation of quantum interference, previously developed by the authors, we argue that quantum probability is not an alternative to classical Kolmogorov probability, but a more general structure. Classical probability theory emerges as a limiting case corresponding to the disappearance of interference and the effective decomposition of the whole into independent elements. Within this framework, the Birkhoff–von Neumann quantum logic appears as a natural logical expression of quantum probability rather than as an abstract algebraic construction detached from physical meaning. The priority of the whole over its parts plays a central role in both quantum probability and quantum logic, while classical logic and probability arise when this priority becomes trivial. We emphasize that the proposed interpretation does not reject existing quantum formalism, but reinterprets its logical and probabilistic foundations. This approach may have implications for the conceptual understanding of quantum algorithms and quantum information processing.
In this paper we provide a structural derivation of Birkhoff–von Neumann quantum logic starting from an extended statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics. Quantum logic is not introduced as an independent logical hypothesis, but is shown to arise naturally from the non-classical structure of quantum probability, in particular from interference, non-additivity, and the priority of the whole over its alternatives. We demonstrate that the failure of Boolean logic in quantum mechanics is not a semantic or philosophical anomaly, but a direct consequence of the probabilistic structure encoded in Hilbert space. Within this framework, quantum logic appears as the logical form of quantum probability itself. This interpretation clarifies the physical meaning of quantum logic and highlights its contemporary relevance in quantum information and quantum computation.
We develop a statistical interpretation of quantum interference in which probabilities, rather than wave amplitudes as primitive objects, form the fundamental descriptive level of quantum phenomena. Interference effects are treated as structural relations between alternative probabilistic contributions, governed by a principle of global consistency (priority of the whole over parts). Within this framework, quantum probabilities are non-Kolmogorovian but remain objectively defined. We show that this interpretation naturally leads to the lattice-theoretic structure of quantum propositions introduced by Birkhoff and von Neumann. Quantum logic thus emerges not as an abstract postulate, but as a structural consequence of quantum probability itself. Finally, we illustrate how this viewpoint provides a clear conceptual reading of quantum algorithms. As an appendix, the Grover search algorithm is analyzed as an example where interference-based probability redistribution can be understood without invoking metaphysical superposition, but purely through statistical structure.
Interpretational paradoxes of quantum mechanics may be associated with the application of the structure of classical probability theory to systems whose probabilistic organization is fundamentally contextual. In this work, we propose an outline of an alternative probability theory in which the primary object is not an elementary outcome but a contextual whole—a class of alternatives defined by a common structural property. In this approach, probability is organized on two levels. The first level describes the probabilities of contextual wholes, while the second level describes the conditional probabilities of alternatives within those wholes. Individual alternatives do not possess autonomous probabilities outside their context. Their probabilities arise only as contextual projections of a more fundamental probabilistic structure. Within this model, quantum mechanics appears as a special case of a more general theory in which contextual wholes are described by superpositions of probability amplitudes. Classical probability theory emerges as a limiting case in which all contexts are mutually compatible and can be combined into a single global description. The proposed framework provides a possible conceptual foundation for understanding quantum probability, contextuality, interference, and hybrid probability distributions within a unified structure.
Born’s probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics is commonly assumed to rely on classical probability theory in the sense of Kolmogorov. In this paper we argue that this assumption is methodologically unjustified. We show that quantum probabilities naturally arise from an analytic method fundamentally different from the synthetic approach underlying classical probability theory. In the analytic framework, the whole (the totality of alternatives) is primary, while probabilities of individual alternatives are derived quantities. Interference appears at the level of the realization probability of the whole, whereas conditional probabilities of alternatives remain additive within a given context. We demonstrate that many well-known quantum paradoxes originate from the inappropriate application of synthetic probabilistic reasoning. The proposed formulation is consistent with the Born rule, its extensions developed in our earlier works, and with Birkhoff–von Neumann quantum logic. Classical probability theory appears only as a degenerate formal limit and is not methodologically universal.
The mathematics of classical probability theory was subsumed into classical measure theory by Kolmogorov in 1933.Quantum theory as nonclassical probability theory was incorporated into the beginnings of noncommutative measure theory by von Neumann in the early thirties, as well.To precisely this end, von Neumann initiated the study of what are now called von Neumann algebras and, with Murray, made a first classification of such algebras into three types.The nonrelativistic quantum theory of systems with finitely many degrees of freedom deals exclusively with type I algebras.However, for the description of further quantum systems, the other types of von Neumann algebras are indispensable.The paper reviews quantum probability theory in terms of general von Neumann algebras, stressing the similarity of the conceptual structure of classical and noncommutative probability theories and emphasizing the correspondence between the classical and quantum concepts, though also indicating the nonclassical nature of quantum probabilistic predictions.In addition, differences between the probability theories in the type I, II and III settings are explained.A brief description is given of quantum systems for which probability theory based on type I algebras is known to be insufficient.These illustrate the physical significance of the previously mentioned differences.
This chapter contains a brief introduction to mathematical formalism and QM axiomatics. It is oriented to non-physicists. Since QM is a statistical theory it is natural to start with the classical probability model (Kolmogorov [ 191 ], 1933). Then we present the basics of the theory of Hilbert spaces and Hermitian operators and the representation of pure and mixed states by normalized vectors and density operators. This introduction is sufficient to formulate the axiomatics of QM in the form of five postulates. The projection postulate (the most questionable postulate of QM) is presented in a separate section. We sharply distinguish between the cases of quantum observables represented by Hermitian operators with nondegenerate and degenerate spectra, von Neumann’s and Ltiders’s forms of the projection postulate. The axiomatics is completed by a short section on the main interpretations of QM. The projection postulate (LUders’s form) plays a crucial role in the definition of quantum conditional (transition) probability. By operating with the latter we consider interference of probabilities for two incompatible observables as a modification of the formula of total probability by adding the interference term. This viewpoint to interference of probabilities was elaborated in a series of works by Khrennikov. Since classical probability theory is based on the 142 Boolean algebra of events, a violation of the law of total probability can be treated as the probabilistic sign of a violation of the laws of the Boolean logics. From this viewpoint, quantum theory can be considered as representing a new kind of logic, so-called quantum logic. The latter is also briefly presented in a separate section. We continue this review with a new portion of quantum mathematics, namely the notion of the tensor product of Hilbert spaces and the tensor product of operators. After the section on Dirac’s notation with ket and bra vector, we discuss briefly the notion of qubit and entanglement of a few qubits. This chapter concludes with a presentation of the detailed analysis of the probabilistic structure of the two-slit experiment in a bunch of different experimental contexts. This contextual structure leads to a violation of the law of total probability and non-Kolmogorovean probabilistic structure of this experiment.